CASWELL, Richard, American lawyer: b. Maryland, 3 Aug. 1729; d. Fayetteville, N. C., 20 Nov. 1789. He removed to North Carolina in 1746; practised law and was a member of the colonial assembly (1756-70). He was a delegate to the Continental Congress 1774-75; was president of the Provincial Congress which framed the State constitution (1776), and 1st governor of the State 1775-79; re-elected 1784 87; comptroller-general of the State 1782-84; was also a delegate to the convention which framed the Federal constitution in 1787. He was major-general of the Newbern district in the Revolution.
CAT, a predatory animal of the' family Felidre (q.v, for physical characteristics). All feline animals are °cats* in the broader sense; but in the more restricted and common usage the name refers to the smaller, long-tailed, typi cal members of the genus Fells. The type is the wildcat (F. catus) of Europe and western Asia, but now extinct in Great Britain, and very rare except in the wilder forests of Germany, Austria and eastward. It is somewhat larger and of stouter build than the domestic cat; its body is yellowish gray, with a dark line along the back, and many darkish stripes on the sides and across the legs; its tail, of moderate length, is ringed and tipped with blackish; and the soles of the feet are black. It is a fierce animal, preying upon anything it is able to overcome, goes abroad chiefly at night, and makes its lair in hollow trees and crannies among rocks, and is almost untamable. This brief descrip tion of habits will answer for most of the other cats to be mentioned, varying with their diverse habitats; but some of the others have shown themselves far more amenable to domestication. It should be noted that the American °wildcat' is not this species, but a very different one— the short-tailed lynx (q.v.).
Mivart enumerates in his monograph 36 species of these smaller cats, but some of them are probably mere varieties of others; and we can here mention only a few of the better known ones, larger descriptions of which may be found under their names. The most im portant one is the •Egyptian or Caffre cat (F. libyca), the main source of our household pets, described in the article CATS, DOMESTIC. An other important African species is the widely distributed serval (q.v.) whose fur is valuable.
A reddish-brown species, called the golden haired (F. rutila), and two or three others, little known, inhabited the West African forests. Asia has many varieties of cats, some of which are of large size. Thus the spotted cat (F. tristis) of the interior of China has a body nearly three feet long; and nearly as big is the handsome, spotted and striped fishing cat (q.v.) of eastern India and the Malayan Peninsula. Others of note are the leopard cat (q.v.) of Bengal and eastward; the common Indian jungle cat or chaus (q.v.) ; the little rusty-gray jungle cat (F. rubionosus), which is the small est of its tribe; the Manul of northeastern Asia; the flat-headed Malayan cat (F. plani ceps), which is uniformly brown in hue; the marbled cat (F. marmorata), richly orna mented with wavy, irregular lines and blotches of color, and the bay or golden cat (F. aurata) of northern India, Malaya and the East Indies. This last animal is of special interest as it is believed to be the parent stock of the Siamese domestic cat, which was formerly reserved for royalty alone. Its fur is pale golden-chestnut in color, becoming bay along the back; the throat and under parts are white, while the face is strikingly ornamented with stripes of black, white and orange.
America has several species of wildcats besides the large jaguar (q.v.) and the puma or cougar (q.v.) ; those of North America are more properly defined as lynxes (see LYNX), but Central and South America have several typical felines. Of these the ocelot, the mar gay, the eyra and the jaguarondi, are described elsewhere under their names. A very distinc tive anti well-known species of the plains' region south of Brazil is known as grass cat, tajero and pampas or grass cat (q.v.). See CHEETA, FELIDM ; LYNX.
Eliot, 'Monograph of the FelidaP (folio, colored plates, London 1878) ; Jerdon, (Mammals of British India' (London 186S) ; Anderson, of Egypt' (London 1902) ; Mivart, The Cat' (New York 1892) ; Hamilton, Hamilton, The Wildcat of Europe' (Lon don 1896) • J. S., (Animal Life in Africa' (New York 1912) and Cassell's, the Royal and the Standard Natural Histories.